Printing Database Records to an external printer/paper?

I'm very new to java... How do you print information on paper (e.g. a record from a database) through java. Is there any method to print the info directly to the printer without writing it in to a file first. I would like to be able to send reports to a printer based on the data that I have in my database. I haven't a clue how to do this. I was able to print the plain text document below without any problem. It's an example from the Java Print API. It was pretty easy. Java Print API tutorial: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2000/jw-1020-print.html

But how do I go about adding the data that's in my database to this document. I tried inserting a query statement in the code below to see if that would work. I don't have a clue. If you have any ideas could you let me know.. Duncan /** * Class: Example5

* * Example of using the TextLayout class to format a text paragraph. * with full justification.

//--- Create a string and assign the text String text = new String (); text += "Manipulating raw fonts would be too complicated to render paragraphs of "; text += "text. Trying to write an algorithm to fully justify text using "; text += "proportional fonts is not trivial. Adding support for international "; text += "characters adds to the complexity. That's why we will use the "; text += "<code>TextLayout</code> and the <code>LineBreakMeasurer<code> class to "; text += "render text. The <code>TextLayout<code> class offers a lot of "; text += "functionality to render high quality text. This class is capable of "; text += "rendering bidirectional text such as Japanese text where the alignment "; text += "is from right to left instead of the North American style which is left "; text += "to right. The <code>TextLayout<code> class offers some additional "; text += "functionalities that we will not use in the course of this "; text += "series. Features such as text input, caret positionning and hit "; text += "testing will not be of much use when printing documents, but it's good "; text += "to know that this functionality exists. "; text += "The <code>TextLayout</code> class will be used to layout "; text += "paragraphs. The <code>TextLayout</code> class does not work alone. To "; text += "layout text within a specified width it needs the help of the "; text += "<code>LineBreakMeasurer</code> class. This class will wrap a string of "; text += "text to fit a predefined width. Since it's a multi-lingual class, it "; text += "knows exactly where to break a line of text according to the rules "; text += "of the language. Then again the <code>LineBreakMeasurer</code> does "; text += "not work alone. It needs information from the "; text += "<code>FontRenderContext</code> class. This class' main function is to "; text += "return accurate font metrics. To measure text effectively, this class "; text += "needs to know the rendering hints for the targeted device and the font "; text += "type being used. ";

//--- Create a point object to set the top left corner of the TextLayout object Point2D.Double pen = new Point2D.Double (0.25 * POINTS_PER_INCH, 0.25 * POINTS_PER_INCH); //--- Set the width of the TextLayout box double width = 8 * POINTS_PER_INCH;

//--- Create an attributed string from the text string. We are creating an //--- attributed string because the LineBreakMeasurer needs an Iterator as //--- parameter.AttributedString paragraphText = new AttributedString (text); //--- Set the font for this text paragraphText.addAttribute (TextAttribute.FONT, new Font ("serif", Font.PLAIN, 12)); //--- Create a LineBreakMeasurer to wrap the text for the TextLayout object //--- Note the second parameter, the FontRendereContext. I have set the second //--- parameter antiAlised to true and the third parameter useFractionalMetrics //--- to true to get the best possible outputLineBreakMeasurer lineBreaker = new LineBreakMeasurer (paragraphText.getIterator(), new FontRenderContext (null, true, true)); //--- Create the TextLayouts objectTextLayout layout;TextLayout justifyLayout; //--- Create a Vector to temporaly store each line of text Vector lines = new Vector (); //--- Get the output of the LineBreakMeasurer and store it in a Vector while ((layout = lineBreaker.nextLayout ((float) width)) != null) { lines.add (layout); } //--- Scan each line of the paragraph and justify it except for the last line for (int i = 0; i < lines.size (); i++) { //--- Get the line from the vector layout = (TextLayout) lines.get (i); //--- Check for the last line. When found print it //--- with justification off if (i != lines.size () - 1) justifyLayout = layout.getJustifiedLayout ((float) width); else justifyLayout = layout; //--- Align the Y pen to the ascend of the font, remember that //--- the ascend is origin (0, 0) of a font. Refer to figure 1 pen.y += justifyLayout.getAscent (); //--- Draw the line of text justifyLayout.draw (g2d, (float) pen.x, (float) pen.y); //--- Move the pen to the next position adding the descent and //--- the leading of the font pen.y += justifyLayout.getDescent () + justifyLayout.getLeading (); } //--- Validate the page return (PAGE_EXISTS); } } //*******************Begin QueryResult Method********************* public void QueryResult() { try { //int recordNumber = rs.getInt( "id" ); // if ( recordNumber != 0 ) {

This will give you some insight to your problem. if you manage to work out some think please post it on java ranch. thank you. Yoel Stern ------------------ Sun Certified Programmer for JAVA 2 Platform [This message has been edited by yoel stern (edited August 21, 2001).]

DUVARRIS, WALKER
Greenhorn

Joined: Aug 21, 2001
Posts: 2

posted Aug 21, 2001 12:50:00

0

Thanks for the immediate response Yoel... I'm know all about this the article, Printing in Java, at:http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2000/jw-1020-print_p.html I've been able to run examples from this article without any problems. Printing in java isn't the problem. I can print the examples from this article just java fine... the problem I'm having is trying to get data from my data to print out. How do I get the data or records that are in my database onto paper. How do I send database column values to a printer? Have you figured this out yet? Please let me know... All any ideas will be greatly appreciated.